Indiana is devastated by Oliver's departure

For those of you who don't know my brother, he is ridiculously creative and funny. After visiting us in Indy last summer, he determined (rightly so) that similarly to many indie rock bands in Japan, Oliver is HUGE in Indiana. When we moved back to Seattle, we received a series of post cards documenting the impact of Oliver's departure from Indiana. For those of you who don't know, the backstory behind the third postcard relates to our former next door neighbors in Indy. Let's just say that they were crying in their tea bags the day Obama won Indiana and the presidency. Then, the day Obama signed the health care act into law (Obama-care if you will), they turned their everflying American flag upside down and left it that way until Memorial Day. Yup, they flew their flag upside down for more than TWO MONTHS because we were expanding health care coverage!

Okay, so I haven't been so great about keeping up with this blog! It's been a busy month with our stuff arriving (no, we are not completely unpacked yet) and my parents visiting. August is going to be busy too---we have a trip to the Oregon coast, a visit from Andy's mom, and a wedding. Then, September comes in with a roar with another wedding and Andy's first day of school.

We are still loving our house. It's really great and in amazing condition. According to our next door neighbors, the original owners (who were here until 2003) had weekly cleaning tasks that included wiping down all of the windowsills and mopping the garage! Apparently, the walls in the dining room had mauve fabric on them for a while!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our kitchen, partly because I just spent a long time cleaning it today and partly because I want to show off the new, more appropriately sized knobs. Oh yeah, and I am thinking of replacing all of the appliances. The oven is really small, and I need to be able to make copious amounts of cookies!! Any thoughts on whether stainless appliances would look okay with the 1950s style cabinets?? We may be upgrading to a taller, slimmer fridge in order to accomodate the wider oven, which in addition to more $$ means stainless may be the only option. I can live with our current appliances for a while (although the ~25-year-old dishwasher and I frequently have words). Andy and the microwave aren't on good terms because the beeping sounds it makes are incredibly loud. It really is crazy loud---it's not good to be standing next to it when it goes off. Not sure who needs that...

Here are the old, large, white ceramic knobs:

And here are the new, smaller, metal knobs:

My tiny wall oven